Questions about Texturing (a new Beginning/reboot)
Ok, I’m going to start completely over I’m need help with retexturing 2 Aircraft models. My goals are
- To update an older model (aircraft #1), that was made for 3Dlight Shaders & convert the Shaders to use with Iray.
- Take Aircraft #2 and be able to change the shaders so I can change the look/feel of the aircraft.
Aircraft #1 is the twin engine aircraft, Aircraft #2 is the four engine aircraft
With that said I have some success with your help on Aircraft #1 however there is a spot that I’m still having trouble/ still not understanding.
If you look on the aircraft you’ll see 2 areas with a light and dark gray around the wings, I want them to be a metal looking The Light Gray needs to be an Unfinished Aluminum and Dark Gray will be a Polished Aluminum. Currently the whole skin/texture map is a single item.
I need help with splitting the texture map in separate shader areas.
Thanks,
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There are a few ways to do it. I'd say the easiest is using Geometry Editor in Daz Studio.
First, make sure you have the object selected, then go to the Tools menu and select Geometry editor. Then go to the Window>Panes(Tabs) menu and select Tool Settings. From there, using the default settings in Geometry Editor, you should be able to drag the cursor across the object and select the vertices you want. Then in the Geometry Editor Tool Settings tab, you can create a new surface to assign those vertices to. That's pretty much it.
If you're not familiar with Geometry Editor, it's worth watching a few youtube tutorials to learn. It really is useful. Here's a forum post with a tutorial: https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/42088/tutorial-adding-surfaces-in-ds-with-the-geometry-editor-tool
I'm terrible at explaining things. Just ask if you have any questions.
@kitsumo,
As I see it via the tutorials that I seen, the Geometry Editor is limited to the shape of the polygons of the object and for editing the mesh of object. However unless I'm missing something it won't help me since most of the designs that I'm going to do have complex curves.
I think I need some kind of a shader mixer maybe.
Once you activate the Geometry Editor and open the Tool Settings pane, it gives you options to select a group of polygons and assign them to a different surface, or in your case, create a new surface like in the pic above. Look at the part on the left side of the pic where it says Surfaces, Create Surface, and Create Surface from Selected. That's what you'd use to assign polygons to a new surface. I'd try it in Youtube except I've never made a Youtube video before. I'll see if I can come up with a better way to explain it.
Ok, here goes. First, you'll need to load your object and make sure you have it selected. It doesn't matter if you have other objects in the scene, Geometry Editor only works on one object at a time (as far as I know)
Next, switch to Geometry Editor and activate the Tool Settings pane. It will show whatever materials the object has, and if you have the materials tab open (on the right side of the pic) the materials there should match.
Next, you can use the Geometry Editor to select the polygons you want to reassign. Click and drag to select, and CNTRL+click and drag to continue selecting in a different area. ALT+click and drag to deselect polygons.
Once you're satisfied with your selection, go to the Tool Settings and right click on Surfaces and click Create New from Selected... A window will pop up for you to name the new surface.
Enter that and your new surface will be created. Notice that it also appears in the surfaces tab.
You can go to the surfaces tab and modify your surface or whatever you want. You can also delete surfaces this way and of course nothing will be permanent until you save the object (or figure or prop or whatever). Also, notice that the Tool Settings tab displays how many polygons are assigned to each surface and (hopefully) will let you know if anything is unassigned.
@kitsumo,
a realy nice tutorial easy to follow, this shurly was a bit of work. I just would suggest to change the Draw Style to Wire Texture Shaded to actualy see the polygons you want to select.
@Turk_WLF,
To change the Draw Style to Wire Texture Shaded click on the ball icon in the upper right corner of the viewport right in front of the camera selection.
But I guess I understand your issue that the texture area you want to have an aluminium shader on the airplane dosn't match the polygons in the mesh. So you can't use the Geometry Editor to select this area to create a new Surface.
In this case you can create a Geometry Shell and apply the aluminium shader to this. This will affect the shader on the whole airplain. The Geometry Shell is a copy of the original object with an little offset.
Next you would need a Cutout Opacitiy texture map with a white area for the aluminium shader to show and a black area where to hide the shader and the Geometry Shell. To paint the Cutout Opacitiy texture you can use the original texture with the grey color as orientation just color fill it black and while in an Image Editor.
For some reason my picture keeps on disappearing after I attaching it to the original post. So I hope a separate posting and a smaller file size will work!
@kitsumo great tutorial, I've bookmarked it. Thank you for taking the time and describing everything so clearly!
Cool, thanks. I'm glad I could be of help.
@Syrus_Dante, you do understand my issue & I tried your suggestion and the result is a good step closer to what I want. Yes I’m use the Geometry Shell.
The few errors on my latest rendering, I understand why I get the results that I’m getting but I’m not sure how to correct them yet.
The Blue Arrow is pointing to the white out of the blue stripe which you can see after the windows or below the tail. I’m not sure why it’s doing this.
I believe the reason why the Red & Green Arrows areas are white, is because of the Surface Selections have been overwritten.
The Red Arrow is white because it’s part of the main fuselage which is white but it needs to be a dull aluminum. I haven’t looked into what options are available yet.
The Green Arrows are white because they are surface selections were overwritten. How do I take the surface selections & convert them from 3DLight to Iray?
Thanks for all of the help!